


Cuddles and Comfort

by Word_Smith_94



Series: Mechanic/College Student AU [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Comfort Food, Communication, Couch Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Honesty, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Word_Smith_94/pseuds/Word_Smith_94
Summary: Castiel has a date with Dean tonight, their second date, but he's had such a bad day that he just wants to lie down on his sofa and maybe cry. He doesn't want to cancel plans so soon, so when Dean offers to bring him comfort food and to listen to him, how can Castiel say no? Comfort food and Dean might be just what he needs to feel better.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Series: Mechanic/College Student AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174307
Kudos: 55





	Cuddles and Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as a standalone, part one is their smutty meeting.

Castiel heads inside his apartment, drops his bag by the door, kicks off his shoes, and plops face down on the sofa. He just lies there, doesn’t want to do anything and isn’t going to do anything.

He has plans with Dean tonight, their second date, but he’s just not up for it. Friday night at the bar was awesome, and they’ve texted all week, sent some saucy pictures, and they were going to do dinner tonight. He just can’t tonight, but he doesn’t want to risk losing Dean.

As if summoned by thoughts, Castiel’s phone rings, Dean’s face popping up on the screen. Heaving a sigh, Castiel swipes to answer and puts it on speaker phone. “Hey.”

There’s a moment of silence before Dean says, “Hey, Cas, you good?”

“Not really, sorry. I know we had plans, but…” Castiel trails off as tears well up in his eyes, and he sniffs, trying to hold them back. “Not tonight.”

Another bit of quiet, and Castiel wonders if Dean hung up. “What’s your favorite comfort food?”

Not expecting a response, it takes Castiel a moment to respond. “Mac and cheese from Lisa’s Kitchen, just off campus. And her fudgy chocolate cake.” No health benefits, just lovely taste and awesomeness.

“Give me half an hour. I’ll order your food, pick it up, and bring it to you,” Dean tells him. “You want some company, I’ll stick around, and we’ll find something to watch. You want to be alone, I’ll just be your delivery guy.”

Seriously? His one-night stand is doing more than his last boyfriend did. He’s used to being alone on bad day, his ex not wanting to deal with the ugly emotions, so this is totally different. “Um, I’ll let you know when you get here?”

“Sounds good. See you soon, Cas.” Dean hangs up, leaving Castiel alone with his thoughts, trying to figure out what he wants. He’s pretty sure he just wants to be left alone today to wallow in his misery because his misery doesn’t love company.

Castiel’s still draped over the sofa when Dean knocks on the door with the food. Heaving a sigh, Castiel pushes up from the sofa to unlock the door and open it a bit, leaving Dean to walk in on his own. His sofa’s calling him.

He listens to Dean move around his apartment. He must find the plates and silverware and such easily enough because he doesn’t ask any questions. Eventually Castiel feels a hand on his shoulder, and he cracks an eye open to see Dean looking down at him, concerned, food in hand.

“You wanna talk about it?” Dean asks, putting the food aside to help Castiel sit up so he can eat.

Shitty moods remove his filter. “Why do you care? Most people don’t want to take the time to listen to a guy’s problems.”

Dean shrugs, sitting on the ottoman. “Normally, I don’t really care. I want the good times with a partner and don’t stick around through the bad times. But I’m twenty-eight years old, and I’m tired of being alone. So I have to get used to the not so great times.

“Last Friday, I realized that I didn’t want easy anymore,” Dean continues, looking down at his hands. “I wanted something different, and that ended up being you. We didn’t talk much, but I bet we could have interesting conversations and spend time together doing more than just fucking.

“So if you want to talk about a shitty day, I’ll sit here and listen to your shitty day,” Dean tells him, looking up to meet his eyes, “because I’m pretty sure you’re worth it.”

Even with his favorite food in front of him, Castiel stares at Dean, surprised to hear him say all of that. He stares long enough Dean starts to shift in place, and Castiel rushes to explain himself. “My ex, he didn’t care. He didn’t want to hear about my bad days, or things bothering me, so it’s a little weird to hear someone wants to listen to me.”

It makes him feel warm inside, knowing Dean cares enough to listen to him especially when his prior behavior sounds like Castiel’s ex.

“So, if you want, I’ll listen to anything you want to say,” Dean tells him, “or I can head out and leave you alone.”

“Did you get food for yourself?” Castiel wants to talk, wants to have that time with someone, but he would feel rude eating on his own.

Dean smiles and heads back to the kitchen, pulling out another box of food and filling another bowl before rejoining Castiel in the living room. “Best mac and cheese in town. I don’t get it often, but it’s great when I do.”

“Come, sit with me,” Castiel tells him, patting the empty sofa cushion next to him. Dean gets up to join him, and they end up face to face on the sofa, the clink of silverware against bowls the only sound. Just having company on his bad day is enough to make Castiel feel better even without talking through things.

Eventually they finish eating though, and it’s time to talk. Castiel takes Dean’s bowl and heads to the kitchen with both of them to soak in the sink. “You mentioned that you work on cars. Did you ever go to college, even just a semester to give it a shot?”

Dean frowns at him, shifting on the sofa. “No, I knew I didn’t want to go to more school. I practically ran out of school on my last day. I know the basics of course, everyone does, but I don’t know the specifics of college.”

“Alright.” Castiel joins him on the sofa again. “I just wanted to know your level of experience with college so I know how much to explain.” He shifts, trying to settle in. “I’m not a grad student, but as part of my undergrad degree, I’m working on a thesis related to my major, basically a really long paper that ends up published.”

Dean nods. “So you’re like halfway between, doing more than a regular degree, but not enough to get an extra degree.”

“Exactly. I’m a psychology major with a minor in social work,” Castiel tells him. “My goal is to be a therapist, focusing on teens, trying to help them through the stress of school, trying to figure out post high school plans. Sometimes, talking to your parents isn’t helpful.

“My project describes the stresses that students are put under,” Castiel continues, “and various steps parents and teachers can take to try and help reduce those stresses while still preparing students for the future. Problem is, my advisor, who was so helpful at the beginning is now telling me I’m doing everything wrong and that my ideas are shit and that I’m going to fail.”

He flops back on the sofa, stress and disappointment taking over. He can graduate without his thesis, but it won’t mean anywhere near as much, and it won’t look as good moving forward. Castiel wants this, knows his ideas are good, and he hates feeling like he could cry.

Dean grunts, tipping his head to the side while thinking. “So do you have shitty idea, trying to make it work when it actually doesn’t, or is your advisor a dick?”

Castiel laughs at his blunt turn of phrase. “I think it’s a little of both. My ideas aren’t perfect, but I’ve changed them and updated things based on feedback from the students I work with so I’m working with the results, not forcing things. But my advisor refuses to bend. I think he expected me to be completely wrong and doesn’t know what to do now that I’m not.”

“Completely wrong?” Dean asks, shifting to lean back against the arm of the sofa, stretching his legs out next to Castiel.

“He expected my questions and research to actually prove that students _aren’t_ actually under a ton of pressure. He expected to prove that students are just whiney babies.” Castiel remembers his advisor’s doubt and his desire to prove him wrong. “I expected him to be able to change in the face of new information, but apparently not.”

And now he feels like he could cry again.

“What happens if you don’t finish? Can you still graduate?” Dean asks.

“Yeah, but the whole point is to finish so I can graduate with honors,” Castiel explains, exasperated with the whole situation. “I’ve spent months working on this project, and I don’t want to not finish just because my advisor turned out to be an asshole.”

Castiel moans and rolls over to bury his face in the cushions. A moment later he feels a hand rubbing up and down his back. Dean doesn’t say anything, just gives him a moment to sit before rolling back over and sitting up to face Dean.

“What happens if you don’t finish this year? Can you graduate this year and finish your project next year?” Dean asks.

He hasn’t thought about it that way. “Yes, I can. Graduation depends on having enough credits, and I have that. It’s not what I want, but it would work. And that would give me enough time to find a new advisor.”

Now that he thinks about it, a new advisor would fix everything. If he adjusts his timeframe for completing the project, Castiel can present what he has to a new advisor, work though advice from the new advisor, tighten up his project, and maybe even turn out a better project. He just has to be patient.

Leaning in, Castiel grabs Dean’s face to press a kiss to his lips, lingering for a moment before pulling back to smile at Dean. “Thank you so much. I got so stuck on handling things per my current schedule that I couldn’t even see that small variation.”

Dean leans in to steal a kiss of his own before sitting back with a smile. “No problem. You’re smiling now, so you’re feeling at least a little better?”

“Much better,” Castiel tells him, pushing Dean against the back of the sofa so he can curl up against his chest. “Thank you for listening to me.”

“Thanks for not ghosting me just because you had a bad day.” Dean wraps his arms around Castiel, holding him in place. They sit together for a bit, but Castiel knows there’s fudgy chocolate cake in the kitchen.

Wiggling out from Dean’s arms, Castiel heads to the kitchen for cake. “You want cake?” he asks Dean. He doesn’t want to share, exactly, but Dean did bring him food, help solve his problem, and pull him out of his funk. He earned it.

“Only if you feed it to me,” Dean says with a smile while wiggling his eyebrows. Castiel shakes his head at his antics but doesn’t argue, grabbing only one plate and one fork. He rejoins Dean on the sofa, using his foot to point at the remote.

“I’ve got Netflix, Hulu, and Disney,” he tells Dean before taking the first bite of cake. It is his cake after all. But he does offer Dean the second bite which Dean takes with a smile before moaning.

“Best damn cake ever.” Dean steals the next bite before Castiel can feed himself, and Castiel pouts up at him. “You snooze, you lose.”

Well, screw that. Castiel takes an extra large bite, cheeks ballooning out as he wrinkles his nose at Dean who just laughs at him.

“What do you want to watch, Cas?” Dean flips through the apps, waiting for Castiel to chew and swallow.

“I’ve been watching Phineas and Ferb,” Castiel admits before offering Dean another bite, comfortable in his lap and leaning against his chest. It’s nice, sitting together like this, not leading up to anything, just sitting together. He picked the right table to sit at in the full bar. Best decision ever, asking Dean if he could sit with him.

They watch a few episodes sharing the rest of the cake and just appreciating the moment. It doesn’t last forever though, Dean taking a deep breath shortly after they finish the cake. “So, you mentioned an ex?”

Damn. Castiel didn’t want to have this conversation, but it was bound to happen eventually. “I didn’t date much in high school. Too nerdy and shy for that. I haven’t dated much in college either. I met Mark at a frat party, and we technically dated for about six months starting spring semester last year.”

It didn’t take long for Castiel to realize it wasn’t worth it. The sex was good, sure, but that’s really all they had. Mark wasn’t very interested in spending time together unless they were drinking or screwing, and Castiel isn’t entirely sure he didn’t cheat.

“It’s been about four months since I dumped him, and he really didn’t care, just shrugged and went about his day.” Yet another sign it wasn’t a great relationship.

“Was he your first boyfriend?” Dean asks.

“Second. I didn’t date freshman year, still too shy,” Castiel say, spilling his guts and not quite sure why he can’t shut up but not too worried about being judged. “I dated Anthony sophomore year, but it didn’t last through the summer. Then Mark second semester last year.” Sad and lame.

“Still a better record than mine,” Dean admits, rubbing at the back of his head. “I’ve had a bunch of one-night stands, some short flings that didn’t last more than about a month or two, no long-term things.”

Pretty different experiences, but they can manage it, he’s sure. They just have to talk about things. Speaking of, “But you’re interested in something long-term now?” That’s what he got from Dean’s comments when he arrived.

“Can’t guarantee that I’ll be any good at it,” Dean warns, “but I’m willing to try. Just be patient with me?”

“Of course.” Castiel stretches up to wrap Chaste and comfortable tonight. “Do you want to spend the night? I’ve got some clothes that’ll fit you so you don’t have to sleep in jeans?”

Dean looks down at him. “Just sleep, right? Because even though you seem better now, you really weren’t in the mood for more earlier.”

“Just sleep,” Castiel confirms.

“Then sure. And maybe we can do something fun tomorrow.” Dean kisses Castiel’s forehead before turning back to the tv. “Whenever you want. Normally I stay up pretty late.”

Castiel probably won’t last much longer, an episode or two at most. He’s comfy here, lying against Dean, so he’ll have to try and stay awake. And if he doesn’t, well, it won’t be the end of the world.

He’s safe with Dean.


End file.
